🔥 best ruler purely capability wise (ignoring nobility/possibility/implications/themes constraints)
it's dany
okay fine. elaborating. you said to ignore themes but my definition of capable is synonymous with the text's, so this has a correct answer and it's definitely dany (and among the targaryen kings, egg, who was written to be dany's narrative precursor) i don't find much value in discussing this as if they're all competing in the westerosi administration olympics, but dany's story arc (+ jon) is the mode through which grrm is investigating the complexities of kingship and she is clearly written to be something of an answer to the series's pre-occupation with the subject of a 'good king', this is not going to be immediately obvious, i guess, since both jon and dany end their adwd arcs at a state of failure but that has way less to do with their administrative talents and more with how they're working within (night's watch) and to please (the masters) corrupt institutions. dany is the only character in the series who is portrayed as a successful military commander and later as a capable diplomat in meereen, we see her engaging in statecraft when she levies taxes on slaveowning noblemen and works to rebuild the economy of what is essentially, a failed state. she's written to be a preternaturally capable ruler (jon too, i'll argue) where she goes wrong obviously is that, like jon, she tries to make peace with the slavers. the night's watch in its present state exists to dehumanise and make war with a group of people for the crime of being outsiders. as lord commander jon goes against centuries of traditions to push for reforms. and then they kill him for it. right, well, it's a bit more nuanced than that he was also personally pissing off everyone at the wall and broke all his vows when he read out the pink letter. but dany and jon are not failing because they're teenagers or because "no such thing as a good king" (something i obvs agree with politically, but the books do not. because he is writing a story, not a political pamphlet) instead what feastdance is saying, is that you cannot force real change while being beholden to corrupt institutions. dany comes to understand this in the dothraki sea when she embraces fire and blood and jon is freed of his vows to a dying tradition when he chooses arya.




















